I believe that also and am convinced that environmental contaminants are the cause. However, I believe that environmental causes are not being fully examined because of the political implications. In particular, the neoliberal health paradigm that prevails responsibilizes individuals for their personal health management, while deflecting attention from systemic causes that might implicate market operations. Here is an excerpt from an essay I wrote examining these issues:

One important effect of current neoliberal approaches
toward health research and management is the dis-investment in and symbolic
marginalization of, environmental research on autism and related disorders. A
recent research study publicized by Reuters found that children exposed to
organophosphate pesticides have higher risks of ADHD (Reuters 2010). If these
pesticides can be directly and positively correlated with ADHD, it seems
probable they could just as likely be correlated with autism given many
researchers see ADHD as part of the autism spectrum because of commonalities in
executive function deficits (e.g., Corbett,
Constantine, Hendren, Rocke and Ozonoff 2009). Indeed, Landrigan’s
(2010) research suggests that a wide array of common environmental toxins could
play a role in producing autism. Martha Herbert, a prominent researcher in the
area of autism and environmental health, agrees; although, she is more
optimistic about physiological interventions for children who have suffered
environmentally induced injuries (personal correspondence). Yet, the U.S.
approach to regulating chemicals remains lax despite growing evidence of
chemical harms to human and animal life.

The Children’s Environmental Health Center at
Mount Sinai reports that only 20 percent of the more than 80,000 new chemicals
produced since World War II have been tested for toxicity in children (Kristof
2009). In August of 2007 the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) published
a report comparing the lax U.S. regulatory framework for chemicals with a
recently enacted European framework, REACH. The GAO report (GAO-07-825)
explains that under the current regulatory system in the U.S., companies do not
have to develop information on the health or environmental impact of chemicals
unless specifically required by EPA ruling. Consequently, the EPA relies on
voluntary programs for gathering information from chemical companies in order
to evaluate and regulate new chemicals under the provisions of 1976 Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA) legislation.[i]
The GAO report’s recommendation that the burden of risk be shifted to the
chemical companies was not adopted by the George W. Bush Administration, even
after former President Bush’s cancer panel found a strong link between
environmental toxins and cancer (see Layton 2010b, The President’s Cancer Panel
2010). In 2010 a new regulation to overhaul the now outdated 1976 TSCA were
introduced, but so far nothing has been passed (see Layton, 2010a; “Momentum”
2010).[ii]

Chemicals are not the only environmental factor
that may be implicated in autism. Ionizing radiation has received almost no
attention in the environmental research on autism, yet in my opinion there
exists considerable likelihood that it may play a role in the disorder.
Research has demonstrated that even low-doses of ionizing radiation can cause
childhood leukemia (Little, Wakeford and Kendall 2009). Environmental
researchers have pointed out that radiation risk-exposure standards are based
on adult standards and children are a sensitive subpopulation whose biological
vulnerabilities have not been properly assessed for risk-management standards
(see Fucic, Brunborg, Lassan, Jezek et al. 2008; Preston 2004). Furthermore,
natural killer (NK) cells that have been implicated as being deficient in
children with autism (Enstrom 2008) are
particularly susceptible to damage from ionizing radiation (Vokurková et al.
2010). The nuclear power/weapons industry has been very successful in
deflecting attention away from radiation as an environmental risk.

Two research centers study environmental factors
and autism, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School in Piscataway and the University of California at Davis
(“New Centers” 2002). However, efforts to regulate environmental factors
implicated in human disease and disorders face formidable challenges from
industry, ranging from industry science to corporate lobbyists (see McGarity
and Wagner 2008). Epidemiological evidence that chemicals cause harm is often
riddled with contingencies that offer fuel to the corporate science aimed at
debunking environmental health research. Most importantly, contingency
complicates efforts to calculate definite harms using financial logics and
methodologies. Contingency calculates poorly within neoliberal economic calculi
used for assessing risk when costs are involved. Neoliberalism is inherently
biased toward protecting industry when regulation is at issue. Even when harms
are established, opposition to environmental legislation typically overwhelms
support. Business claims that environmental regulation will raise costs, or
force industry to export production abroad, are powerful persuaders.

The compelling body of research
documenting environmental factors in producing autism is likely to be
marginalized for the foreseeable future. The fiscal significance of autism may
very well wane as public expenditures on health care and services for people
with autism are cut as states slash funding. As risk shifts to individuals,
government has fewer financial incentives for battling industry and enforcing
commercially costly enhanced environmental regulations. In contrast, public
dollars for university and commercial research on the genetic causes of autism
will continue since this type of funding is represented as promoting bio-tech
innovation and professional job creation. The same can be said for
pharmaceutical development. Pharmaceuticals that manage autistic symptoms
simultaneously provide cost-effective strategies for managing people with
autism while also fulfilling the mantra of fostering innovation while promoting
economic growth. Risperdal, that corpulent-zombie producing anti-psychotic,
exemplifies the dangers of drugs that promise to ‘manage’ troubling autistic
symptoms.

[i] Passed in 1969, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
initiated policy actions addressing biological and ecological impacts of
synthetic environmental chemicals (Frickel 2006). NEPA mandated the creation of
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Council for Environmental
Quality. NEPA requires an annual report on the state of the environment and
environmental impact assessment using data collected from the EPA. The EPA was
afforded additional regulatory authority with the passage of the 1976 Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA), which enabled the EPA to control chemicals known
to pose unreasonable risks to human or environmental health.

2 comments:

I experienced this first-hand at the kindergarten welcome at my daughter's public school this year. I was in charge of the art project, and the number of kids displaying symptoms of autism was striking and suggested a huge increase. I am not a professional, I just worked at a school for kids with autism when I was in college. Anecdotally, I saw a big increase over what I know to be the general percentage. I also believe that there is plenty of evidence that radiation is causing a lot of the increase: NoNukes on September 8, 2012 at 12:31 pm said:Evidence suggests that children with autism have more harmful intestinal bacteria that produce neurotoxins than control groups.

There is evidence that children with autism have “a higher incidence of the Clostridium histolyticum group (Clostridium clusters I and II) of bacteria than that of healthy children.”http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/content/54/10/987.full

Clostridium histolyticum produces a similar neurotoxin to Clostridium tetani, which causes the deadly disease tetanus.

Is radiation not only destroying DNA, but also creating environments where toxic bacteria proliferate, and then continually release neurotoxins?Radiation Resistance of Spores of Clostridium Species In Aqueous Suspensionhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1965.tb01859.x/abstracthttp://optimalprediction.com/wp/autism-and-radioactivity/ Thanks, Majia, Nonukes

About Me

I am a Professor at a large public university. I study political economy and biopolitics (the politics of life). My interests are diverse but are broadly concerned with economic, social and environmental justice. I have published 5 books: Crisis Communication, Liberal Democracy and Ecological Sustainability: The Threat of Financial and Energy Complexes in the Twenty-First Century (2016); Fukusima and the Privatization of Risk (2013); Constructing Autism (2005); Governmentality, Biopower and Everyday Life (2008/2011); Governing Childhood (2010).
I also participated in an edited collection on Fukushima: Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization (2014).